Delidding your Intel Haswell CPU

Introduction

Introduction

Since the introduction of the Haswell line of CPUs, the Internet has been aflame with how hot the CPUs run. Speculation ran rampant on the cause with theories abounding about the lesser surface area and inferior thermal interface material (TIM) in between the CPU die surface and the underside of the CPU heat spreader. It was later confirmed that Intel had changed the TIM interfacing the CPU die surface to the heat spreader with Haswell, leading to the hotter than expected CPU temperatures. This increase in temperature led to inconsistent core-to-core temperatures as well as vastly inferior overclockability of the Haswell K-series chips over previous generations.

A few of the more adventurous enthusiasts took it upon themselves to use inventive ways to address the heat concerns surrounding the Haswell by delidding the processor. The delidding procedure involves physically removing the heat spreader from the CPU, exposing the CPU die. Some individuals choose to clean the existing TIM from the core die and heat spreader underside, applying superior TIM such as metal or diamond-infused paste or even the Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra metal material and fixing the heat spreader back in place. Others choose a more radical solution, removing the heat spreader from the equation entirely for direct cooling of the naked CPU die. This type of cooling method requires use of a die support plate, such as the MSI Die Guard included with the MSI Z97 XPower motherboard.

Whichever outcome you choose, you must first remove the heat spreader from the CPU's PCB. The heat spreader itself is fixed in place with black RTV-type material ensuring a secure and air-tight seal, protecting the fragile die from outside contaminants and influences. Removal can be done in multiple ways with two of the most popular being the razor blade method and the vise method. With both methods, you are attempting to separate the CPU PCB from the heat spreader without damaging the CPU die or components on the top or bottom sides of the CPU PCB.

The razor blade method involves using a double-edged razor blade to cut through the RTV material fixing the heat spreader in place, gently prying the heat spreader from the CPU PCB's surface. You carefully work the blade very carefully under all four corners of the heat spreader to weaken the RTV bond and slowly pry the heat spreader up off of the CPU's surface. This method has many potential pitfalls though. One of the largest is the possibility of cutting into the CPU PCB surface while attempting to cut through the RTV holding the heat spreader in place. Another pitfall to avoid with this method is the possibility of cutting through the circuits along the right and left sides of the CPU die. This is more likely to occur if you attempt to insert the blade too far underneath the heat spreader while attempting to cut through the RTV.

Vise Method

The vise method involves locking the CPU in place by the heat spreader in a bench vise and using a rubber mallet to forcibly remove the CPU PCB from the heat spreader. You basically place a wood block against the edge of the CPU PCB and lightly tap the wood block until you notice separation between the CPU PCB and the heat spreader. While this method seems much more prone to CPU destruction than the razor blade method, it is actually a much safer method and much less prone to pitfalls. As such, we chose to use the vise method to remove the CPU PCB from the heat spreader. In the following pages, we document the necessary tools, the vice method in detail, and the gross results of our freshly delidded Intel 4770K processor.

The MSI Die Guard *should* give the same amount of protection as the EK mounting system, theorectically. But after my *adventures*, I don't think I'll be returning to the land of "direct-die cooling" (and I don't think my wife will let me either)...

That is not true, over time die size has remained similar, but transistor count has increased significantly. This means, that even though TDP has gone down, there is more heat being produced in a smaller area. Smaller transistors are also less resilient to heat. This is the need for a the IHS. Secondly, if contact between the CPU and the heatsink is good, the less TIM is used, and the better the transfer of heat will be. This is because heat transfer is a function of thickness of the material.

Sorry that happened to you, Morry. That is one strong reason why I don't bother with extreme overclocking, and thus never need to resort to such "in-depth" methods to boost overclocking potential. The benefits never seemed to outweigh the potential loss of a chip.

What type of temps are people getting with this method using air or standard enclosed kits found in most stores? Also what type of overclocks are people getting with these impoved temps? None of this was addressed so I'm not even sure if it's worth the trouble.

Unfortunately, my CPU die cracked before i could really get any in-depth analysis done on temps and overclocking. However, I did see a 20C drop in temps initially (until that of which will not be spoken occurred :))

At the first incident, I was not really willing to possibly sacrifice another CPU to the CPU-gods...

Understood Morry, 20c is nothing to scoff at. That will at the very least extend the life and stability of your CPU since intel's boost will likely react better to temps in the much healthier threshold. I'm curious if this will net someone the elusive 5Ghz + overclocks that were initially rumored but then denounced once the chips released and were reviewed.

Anyone have a good experience with this? What were your OC results? We can't expect Morry to possibly sacrifice another flagship chip :)

Thank the gods haswell-e will be going back to soldered tim like my i7-980x. Finally upgrading my x58 system and I thought I was going to have to delid to be able to properly overclock the i7-5960x 8 core. Since 8 core haswell-e will only be 3.0ghz at stock getting the best OC potential out of this chip is very important as single thread performance will suffer without a healthy overclock.

Now that haswell-e is back to quality soldering as the tim delidding is no longer necessary. I know 8 core haswell-e is not going to hit 4.6-4.7ghz like the quad cores but I am hoping I can get it up to 4.2ghz at least like my i7-980x 6 core is clocked.

I'll be water cooling it. EKWB supremacy full nickel waterblock, Alphacool Nexxos 60mm thick Full Copper Triple 140mm Radiator (420mm total) with 6x 140mm noctua a15 fans in push pull (really need push/pull with 60mm thick rads), XSPC dual 5.25" bay reservoir with dual mcp655 pumps in serial with 1/2" ID tubing at pump speed 3(i use dual pumps in serial for my water cooling because I need the extra power running through my loop as it cools not only the cpu but full coverage of the motherboard as well as my videocard and using 2 pumps allows me to lower the pump speed on both to reduce noise. Thats also why i have a huge 420mm 140mm x 3 and triple thick 60mm radiator. Just 1 massive loop that cools everything. I'm not totally crazy with that huge a setup just to cool the cpu.

Since its just a Xeon with bad cores that failed QA and were shutoff/cutoff from the rest of the die, they are using the same solder pack process as they would for dice that had all 12 functioning cores that would be sold as a Xeon, and that is likely happening regardless of the binning.

Since Haswell-E is just a Xeon with bad cores that failed QA and were shutoff/cutoff from the rest of the die and down marketed to consumers, they are using the same solder pack process as they would for dice that had all 12 functioning cores that would be sold as a Xeon, and that is likely happening regardless of the binning.

Even without OC, regular Haswell reaches very high temps under certain work loads, 70C+, although it still works.